Recently, as power supplies for driving portable electronic equipment, such as cell phones, portable personal computers, and portable music players, and further, as power supplies for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs), nonaqueous secondary batteries represented by lithium ion secondary batteries having a high energy density and high capacity are widely used.
As for the positive electrode active material in these nonaqueous secondary batteries, one of or a mixture of a plurality of lithium transition-metal composite oxides represented by LiMO2 (where M is at least one of Co, Ni, and Mn), (namely, LiCoO2, LiNiO2, LiNiyCo1-yO2 (y=0.01 to 0.99), LiMnO2, LiMn2O4, LiCoxMnyNizO2 (x+y+z=1)), LiFePO4, and the like, all of which can reversibly absorb and desorb lithium ions, is used.
Among them, lithium-cobalt composite oxides and other metallic element-containing lithium-cobalt composite oxides are primarily used because their battery characteristics in various aspects are especially higher than those of other oxides. However, cobalt is expensive, and the amount of cobalt is small in natural resources. Thus, in order to continue to use such lithium-cobalt composite oxides and other metallic element-containing lithium-cobalt composite oxides as the positive electrode active material of a nonaqueous secondary battery, the nonaqueous secondary battery is desired to have higher performance.
Meanwhile, when a nonaqueous secondary battery is stored in a charged state in a high temperature environment, the positive electrode is readily degraded. This is believed to be because a nonaqueous electrolyte is oxidatively decomposed on a positive electrode active material or transition-metal ions of the positive electrode active material are eluted when the nonaqueous secondary battery is stored in a charged state, and because the decomposition of a nonaqueous electrolyte and the elution of metal ions are accelerated in a high-temperature environment as compared in a normal temperature environment.
To address this issue, JP-A-2009-32653 discloses an example using a nonaqueous electrolyte containing a compound having 2 or more and 4 or less nitrile groups in the structure formula and at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a fluorinated cyclic carbonate having 2 or more fluorine atoms, a monofluorophosphate, and a difluorophosphate in order to suppress gas generation in a nonaqueous secondary battery when the battery is stored at high temperature in a charged state and to improve cycle characteristics. JP-A-2009-158464 discloses an example using a nonaqueous electrolyte containing a compound having 2 or more and 4 or less nitrile groups in the structure formula in a nonaqueous secondary battery using a negative electrode active material containing at least one of Si, Sn, and Pb in order to suppress gas generation when the battery is stored at high temperature in a charged state and to improve cycle characteristics.
JP-A-09-199112 discloses an example in which a positive electrode binder is mixed with an aluminum coupling agent in order to improve cycle characteristics when a nonaqueous secondary battery is charged and discharged at high voltage under a heavy load condition. Furthermore, JP-A-2002-319405 discloses an example in which a silane coupling agent having an organic reactive group such as an epoxy group and amino group and a bonding group such as a methoxy group and ethoxy group is dispersed in a positive electrode binder in order to improve wettability of a positive electrode with an electrolyte in a nonaqueous secondary battery at low temperature and to improve output characteristics at low temperature.
JP-A-2007-242303 discloses an example in which a positive electrode active material is treated with a silane coupling agent having a plurality of bonding groups in order to improve cycle characteristics when intermittent cycles of a nonaqueous secondary battery are repeated. JP-A-2007-280830 discloses an example in which a silane coupling agent is present near a broken surface of a positive electrode active material occurring when a positive electrode binder layer is compressed in order to improve cycle characteristics of a nonaqueous secondary battery.
By the inventions disclosed in JP-A-2009-32653 and JP-A-2009-158464, because a compound having 2 or more and 4 or less nitrile groups in the structure formula is adsorbed on a positive electrode in a charged state, it is considered that the compound has advantageous effects of protecting the surface of the positive electrode, reducing side reactions between a nonaqueous electrolyte and the positive electrode, and improving various types of battery characteristics when the battery is stored at high temperature.
It is believed that such effect is derived from the following mechanism. When a nitrile group-containing compound is contained in a nonaqueous electrolyte, the compound is coordinated with a trace amount of metal ions eluted from a positive electrode and deposited on the positive electrode surface, or a reaction product by oxidative decomposition is deposited on the positive electrode surface. Because such a film formed on the positive electrode surface works to prevent direct contact of the nonaqueous electrolyte or a separator with the positive electrode, the oxidative decomposition of the nonaqueous electrolyte or the separator is suppressed, and thus the gas generated when the battery is stored at high temperature in a charged state can be suppressed.
However, the film formed on the positive electrode surface has the following problems: because the film increases film resistance of the interface between the positive electrode and the nonaqueous electrolyte, ion conduction is inhibited; operating voltage is decreased, and capacity efficiency is decreased when the battery is stored in a charged state in a high temperature environment; and charge load characteristics are significantly decreased in a low temperature environment.
The inventions disclosed in JP-A-09-199112, JP-A-2002-319405, JP-A-2007-242303, and JP-A-2007-280830 show that mixing a silane or aluminum coupling agent in a positive electrode binder can possibly lead to an improvement in cycle characteristics and output characteristics in a low temperature environment to some extent. However, the inventions disclosed in JP-A-09-199112, JP-A-2002-319405, JP-A-2007-242303, and JP-A-2007-280830 have problems that the amount of gas generated is large when a nonaqueous secondary battery is stored at high temperature in a charged state and capacity efficiency is decreased.
The inventors of the present invention have carried out various experiments repeatedly on such a nonaqueous secondary battery in which a nitrile group-containing compound is added to a nonaqueous electrolyte in order to improve the charge load characteristics in a low temperature environment and the capacity efficiency when stored at high temperature in a charged state. As a result, the inventors have found that the problems mentioned above can be solved when a positive electrode binder contains a predetermined amount of a silane or aluminum coupling agent and the average particle diameter and the specific surface area of a positive electrode active material are maintained in a predetermined range, whereby the invention has been accomplished.